Happy Birthday Gary

Our friend Gary turned 29 yesterday. His wife, Heather, gave him a surprise party in the Education Building at church. We had hot dogs, baked beans, chips, and banana pudding. After finishing his meal at the kids' table, Gary tried on this toilet seat cover set, a gift from another friend, Nageb. Good sport, good times...

A Stormy Dance-off

After the boys left at 2, Nathan kept working for a while and the girls and I watched Elf. Then, it started getting stormy. I mean, really stormy! Lightening struck a neighbor's tree two doors down and it blew chunks of wood into our yard. Nathan started to worry about our big, ancient trees in our yard and herded the girls into the kitchen (away from the trees), where we decided to have a dance contest. Here's Nathan giving the girls a few pointers on "The Robot." Notice that he's also dressed to kill in his socks and flip flops.


This picture is kind of dark, but you can probably tell that a huge tree is inside someone's house! The tree was rotted on the inside by bugs, and the strong winds just ripped it from the ground. Our neighbor around the corner, Bruce, and his family were inside when it happened, but everyone is safe and unhurt. Please pray for them if you think of it. It's got to be just crazy to have that happen.

Dance-off Video

Here's a dance-off between Anna Grace and me. We're mostly just impersonating Nathan. :)

I Love Being a Teacher

Another cool thing about Whitefield Academy is that students need 10 hours of community service to be promoted to the next grade. With the school year coming to a close, these fabulous young men below are racking up some hours doing yard work with Nathan and me. I got a text from our neighbor Bev (whose house you can see across the street) which read, "U guys do know that child labor is frowned upon, right?" Anna Grace and Emma Jackson (our flower girls) were over as well. Anna Grace was the photographer for the day.


Anna Grace and I were outside in our flip flops picking up sticks when Nathan said, "You're standing in a giant patch of poison ivy!" We screamed, washed our feet off with gardenia body scrub in the tub, Anna quit her stick picking up job, and I proceeded in the yard armed with my poison ivy deterring socks. See below. Who knew that my cheer socks would come in handy for such an occasion?


Here is an action shot of me dumping sticks onto a pile. You may or may not recognize the pile as the previous location of our Super Bowl party bonfire. Good times. Thanks for shooting the memories Anna Grace!
Dressed to kill, I say. Dressed. To. Kill.

The South at Its Best

Monday night Nathan was changing the oil in my car and was having trouble unscrewing something underneath it. Before we knew it, we had all the neighbors over to help fix the problem, including Danny (in blue) and Howard (in red). It was pretty funny. They were out there for about an hour before Howard pulled over this HUGE jack across the street. On his way home, I laughed with Nathan about how he looked a lot like a little boy pulling his wagon home after the street lights came on.

Check out Nathan's face. He was pretty frustrated.


While the boys were outside, Danny's wife Katie, and their baby Oliver came in to visit me and Nathan's sister, Hannah, over some more sweet tea. Here's Oliver showing off his new skill! He just learned to walk!


Somehow I got the pictures vertical, but I couldn't tell you how. :)

Good Hair Day

One cool thing about working at Whitefield is that they give you the day off for your birthday. Since my birthday is now a summer birthday (May 27), I got to pick when I wanted to "celebrate" it. I picked yesterday because we already had Monday off. I woke up late, showered and shaved my legs, did my nails and hair... things I rarely do all in one morning. It was fabulous! I'll have you know that I went strolling through the aisles at Target feeling like a million bucks. I should do my hair more often. :)
Hope you like my new 'do!

Another River Walk

Nathan and I went back to the river on Sunday. Atlanta has just been beautiful this last week!



This is in the car on the way to the river. I've been on a sweet tea kick lately. A Southern belle phase, if you will. I think I look like a greasy frog in this picture, but I am rarely seen without my Whitefield cup and sweet tea this days.

Nathan figured out the timer on the camera, and we took this picture right outside of the parking lot to the river. You have to pay $3 to park in the lot, and we're kind of cheap, so we walked the extra 500 yards to the reserve. Besides, there were pretty azaleas on the street. :)

Giant lizard! We totally would have missed this if we had parked in the lot, right Nathan?


Nathan reminds me of Gaston from "Beauty and the Beast" when we take these kinds of pictures. :)




Atlas comes out by the river! Is the gym... this way... or that way?